With traditional clamping devices, when an irregular-shaped workpiece is involved, the use of additional devices (auxiliary equipment), in addition to the clamping device (the clipping equipment or device), is necessary.
Further, traditional clamping devices are not equipped with opposing clamping faces that matingly engage (couple) with one another to expand its clamping (clipping) use. Also, the clamping members (chucks) of traditional clamping devices are not able to either rotate (regulate the clipping direction of vibration) or to slide laterally, so that the positioning of the clamping surfaces relative to one another can be adjusted to accommodate the shape of the workpiece. This limited their use with workpieces having certain shapes and, in particular, certain irregular shapes.
In European Patent Application No. 86301397.5, the applicant herein has disclosed a clamping device for clamping irregular-shaped workpieces. This is an advanced clamping device for clamping and holding an irregular-shaped workpiece, so that work may be performed thereon by the use of clamping members having chamfered (convex and concave faces) clamping surfaces. This clamping device also has clamping members that are able to rotate relative to one another while being slid towards one another during the clamping operation.